The intergenerational transmission of advantage: parental education, out-of-school engagement and mathematics achievement in 81 countries

Parental education predicts academic success, but its transmission is often oversimplified. This study examines how students’ out-of-school engagement, what Bourdieu called internalized family dispositions or ‘habitus’, mediates this relationship for mathematics achievement. Using 2022 PISA data from 613,744 students across 81 countries and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), we found that parental education positively impacts both engagement and achievement. However, specific engagements varied: studying and exercise improved scores, while household chores and paid work harmed them. Crucially, studying also served as a key pathway explaining how parental education translates into higher mathematics achievement. For practice, these findings suggest that raising parental education alone is insufficient. Schools and policymakers should focus on improving the quality of student engagement, providing financial support to reduce students’ reliance on paid work and designing interventions that address gender-based differences in how maternal education versus paternal education benefits sons versus daughters.